to
clothing has not been allowed even fame, while our courts are incessantly
occupied with the men who make the clothing. Patentees and producers of
books are incessantly pressing upon Congress with claims for enlargement
of their privileges, and are thus producing the effect of inducing an
inquiry into the validity of their claim to what they now enjoy. Be
content, my friends; do not risk the loss of a part of what you have in
the effort to obtain more."

The question is often asked: Why should a man not have the same claim to
the perpetual enjoyment of his book that his neighbor has in regard to the
house he has built? The answer is, that the rights of the parties are
entirely different. The man who builds a house quarries the stone and
makes the bricks of which it is composed, or he pays another for doing it
for him. When finished, his house is all, materials and workmanship, his
own. The man who makes a book uses the common property of mankind, and all
he furnishes is the workmanship. Society permits him to use its property,
but it is on condition that, after a certain time, the whole shall become
part of the common stock. To find a parallel case, let it be supposed that
liberal men should, out of their earnings, place at the disposal of the
people of your town stone, bricks, and lumber, in quantity sufficient to
find accommodation for hundreds of people that were unable to provide for
themselves; next suppose that in this state of things your authorities
should say to any man or men, "Take these materials, and procure lime in
quantity sufficient to build a house; employ carpenters, bricklayers, and
architects, and then, in consideration of having found the lime and the
workmanship, you shall have a right to charge your own price to every
person who may, for all times, desire to occupy a room in it "; would this
be doing justice to the men who had given the raw materials for public
use? Would it be doing justice to the community by which they had been
given? Would it not, on the contrary, be the height of injustice?
Unquestionably it would, and it would raise a storm that would speedily
displace the men who had thus abused their trust. Their successors would
then say: "Messrs.---- our predecessors, did what they had no right to
do. These materials are common property. They were given without fee or
reward, with a view to benefit the whole people of our town, many of whom
are badly accommodated, while others are heavi